Personality Predictors of IT Addiction

Abstract

Prior research on addiction has extensively looked at the personality traits of individuals and their interactions in explaining various types of substance and non-substance addictions. Recent studies have also shown the importance of neuroticism, conscientiousness, and agreeableness on IT addiction. Nevertheless, little is known in IS research regarding the moderated effects of personality traits on the development of IT addiction. Given the increasing attention to the dark side of IT, in this study, we build on Five-Factor personality model to propose a theoretical model that shows the direct and moderated effects of neuroticism, conscientiousness, and agreeableness on addiction to social networking sites (SNS). We empirically test our research model using data collected from 275 SNS users and covariance-based structural equation modeling technique. Furthermore, we shed light on the moderation effects of these factors on SNS addiction via two post-hoc analyses. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.